Alternating current motor



Oct. 29, 1935. J. H. STARK ALTERNATING CURRENT MOTOR Invehtor:

Filed Aug. 24, 1935 duLian H. Stark His Attorney.

Patented o... 29, 1935 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE General Electric New York Company, a corporation of Application August 24, 1933, Serial No. 686,558

8 Claims. (Cl. 172-278) My invention relates to improvements in alternating current motors and particularly to motors of the single-phase type.

It is well known that a single-phase induction motor as such has no starting torque because thereisno component of quadrature iluxdeveloped in time and space phase with the stator flux when the rotor is at a standstill. There are various ways of starting such a motor which depend upon the development of such a component of quadrature flux, for example, the use of shading coils or the phasesplitting method.

It is also known that in the operation of starting motors where the number of pairs of physical poles on the secondary is unequal to the number of pairs of poles on the primary, the rotor will, under certain conditions, lock at a synchronous speed corresponding to the number of secondary poles.

It is an object of my invention to take advantage of these two principles in order to obtain a single-phase motor having two well defined operating speeds.

It is a further object of my invention to con struct such a motor which will operate eillciently at either of these operating speeds.

A further object of my invention is to provide a motor of this type having a high starting torque.

A further object of my invention is to provide a single-phase motor which is particularly adapted for driving the record carrier of a phonograph.

The features of my invention which are beli-eved to be novel and patentable are set forth in the appended claims. My invention, both as to its organization and method of operation, together with further objects and advantages thereof, will be best understood by reference to the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawing in which Fig. 1 is a side elevation of one embodiment of my invention and Fig. 2 represents the embodiment of Fig. i in perspective. The same numerals are used to designate like elements on both figures.

In the drawing I have illustrated the features of my invention as being embodied in a four-pole, single-phase induction synchronous motor, the general elements of which are well known to those skilled in the art. It will be understood that any even number of poles may be used on the primary member. The primary member, which is preferably made the stator, consists of a laminated frame ill on which are mounted the inwardly extending poles II and I2. It will be noted that in the preferred form shown, poles Ii and i2 are split into two sections l3, I4 and II, It

respectively, of approximately equal cross-section.

Main exciting windings ll surround alternate poles ll. These windings H are connected in series by conductors III, II and 42 and arranged to be energized by a single-phase alternating cur- I rent supply to produce opposite poles of the same polarity. Two sets of auxiliary flux shading coils are also provided. The first set consists of permanentLv short-circuited copper rings ll surrounding section II of the poles II. The second set of auxiliary flux-shading windings consists of wound coils ll made of low resistance insulated wire surrounding section II of the consequent poles l2. All of the shading coils are symmetrically arranged. that is, all of them are placed on II the trailing sections of their respective polar proiections with respect to the direction of rotation desired. The terminals of coils II are connected by conductors to switches 2i by means of which they may be selectively short-circuited. 8 These switches 2| may be closed by means of a push button, by a centrifugal device, or in any other desired manner.

It will be observed that while I have shown coils it as having but a single tiu'n and coils I! as having a plurality of turns, the limitation is purely relative and under certain circumstances it might be desirable to have coils ll composed of more than one turn.

The secondary member of the motor is preferably a rotor of the squirrel cage type as indicated at 22. I haveshown a squirrel cage winding having six bars 2! extending across the face of the rotor. These bars are short -circuited in the conventional manner by end rings and are prei'erably embedded in the face of the rotor. with such an arrangement it will be seen that six physical poles are provided between the six rotor bars 23 so that in many respects the rotor is equivalent to a rotor having six salient poles.

The rotor 22 is mounted on a shaft 2 which is rotatably mounted in bearings not shown. In Fig. 2, shaft 24 is shown geared to a phonograph spindle but it will be apparent that my improved motor is capable of many other applications.

In the operation of the embodiment of my motor shown in the drawing, let us assume that 60 cycle alternating current is supplied to the main exciting windings ll. Let us also assume that switches 2| are closed, thus short-circuiting coils i9. Under these circumstances currents are induced in shading coils l8 and IS in a manner well understood in the art. These induced currents oppose the increase and decrease of flux l in the parts of the poles which they enclose. This action servesto create a component of flux in diflering time and space phase to the main flux which is necessary to start the motor as a singlephase induction motor. I refer to this displaced flux as a quadrature flux but do not mean that it is necessarily displaced degrees from the main flux. The main flux and the quadrature flux thus developed cooperate with the rotor bars to produce rotation of the rotor. Under these circumstances the motor operates as a singlephase induction type motor having a high starting torque and a well defined speed for any given load. This speed is less than the theoretical synchronous speed of the motor by an amount equal to the slip and the slip depends upon the load. In the case of the four-pole stator illustrated, the speed will be 1800 R. P. M. minus the slip. 1

If we now open the switches 2|, thus open-ciri 4 cuiting the sli'ading coils l0, it will be found that the motor speed will decrease to 1200 R. P. M. This dropping ofl in speed is due to the fact that with shading coils I0 open-circuited the quadrature flux developed by shading coils i0 is not large enough to develop sufilcient torque to maintain the motor speed at its previous value.

The rotor now determines the synchronous speed of the motor thus making the synchronous speed 1200 R. P. M. This speed will hereafter be referred to as the sub-synchronous locking speed of the motor and will of course vary with the various polar relationships selected on the primary and secondary. The torque developed at this speed will likewise be called the sub-synchronous locking torque.

In other words without coils i0 short-circuited the motor will have a strong locking effect because the shading due to coils II is not sufficient to start the motor but with coils l0 short-circuited the motor will be shaded sumciently to overcome the synchronous characteristic thus starting the motor and would, of course, run the motor above 1200 R. P. M. and less than 1800 R. P. M. However, once the motor has been started the shading coils l9 can be opened and the motor will immediately drop into its sub-synchronous locking s d.

gghile in the description of the illustrated embodiment of my invention I have referred to the primary member as the stator and the secondary member as the rotor, it will be understood that my invention is not limited to this arrangement but is intended to include arrangements wherein the primary member rotates and the secondary member is stationary.

I have shown switches ii in a conventional manner and pointed out that they may be controlled manually, by centrifugal means, electromagnetic means, etc. In some applications it may be desirable to have the switches 2| controlled by speed responsive means on the motor, centrifugal or otherwise so that the coils lil are opencircuited at the sub-synchronous locking speed. thus providing a motor with a high starting torque like an inducion motor and a synchronous running torque like a synchronous motor. An example of a centrifugal device that might be used is illustrated in Patent No. 1,611,102 to DeBell, December 14, 1926.

The embodiment of my invention described and illustrated herein has been selected for the purpose of clearly setting forth the principles involved. It will be apparent, however, that the invention is susceptible of being modified to meet different conditions encountered and is particularly susceptible to being modified as to the relative number of primary and secondary poles. In any case, so long as the number of pairs of secondary poles is larger than the number of pairs of primary poles it will be found that the motor will have a sub-synchronous locking speed. This speed will be found to be dependent upon the number of elective .salient poles on the secondary and will be the same as the speed of a synchronous motor having'a number of poles equal to this number of secondary poles; for example, in the embodiment illustrated the subsynchronous speed, when operated on sixty cycle current, is 1200 R. P. M. which is the synchronous speed of a six pole synchronous motor. This is due to the fact that the rotor has the equivalent of six salient poles. Similarly, if my invention is applied to a motor having a six pole stator and an eight pole rotor the sub-synchronous locking speed, when operated on sixty cycle current, will be 900 R. P. M., whereas the higher speed as an induction motor with the auxiliary shading coils short-circuited would be 1200 minus the slip.

While I do not limit myself to an arrangement wherein the number of secondary poles is prime to the number of primary poles, such an arrangement is usually preferable since it gives a less prominent sub-synchronous locking characteristic and, therefore, facilitates the design of my improved motor for certain desired operating speeds.

It will be understood that I do not limit myself to the use of shading coils as a means of producing a component of quadrature flux in time and space phase to the main flux since any other well known means may be used providing it is arranged so that its eifect may be substantially diminished after the motor has been started so as to allow the motor to operate at its sub-synchronous locking speed.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. An alternating current motor comprising relatively rotatable primary and secondary members, said primary member including means for producing main and quadrature components of flux, said secondary member including means for producing an induction motor torque, and means for producing a sub-synchronous locking torque and means for selectively varying the relative intensity of said main and quadrature components of flux.

2. An alternating current motor comprising relatively rotatable primary and secondary mem bers, said primary member including means for producing main and quadrature components of. flux. said secondary member including means for producing an induction motor torque and means for producing a sub-synchronous locking torque, and means independent of variations in applied voltages for selectively varying the relative in- 1 tensity of said main and quadrature components of flux.

3. An alternating current motor having relatively rotatable primary and secondary members, said secondary member including a closed wind- 4 ing and means for producing relatively well defined magnetic poles, said primary member including means for producing main and quadrature components of flux acting upon said secondary member and means for selectively vary- 1 ing the relative intensity of said components of flux.

4. An alternating current motor having relatively rotatable primary and secondary members, said primary member including means for pro-1 ducing main and quadrature components of flux acting upon said secondary member, said secondary member including means for producing an induction motor torque, and means for producing a sub-synchronous locking torque, means for increasing the relative intensity of the quadrature component of said flux to such a value that the motor speed is proportional to the number of magnetic poles on said primary member, and means for alternatively decreasing the relative intensity of the last mentioned component of said flux to such a value that the motor speed is equal to the sub-synchronous locking speed.

5. An alternating current motor comprising relatively rotatable primary and secondary members, said secondary member having a closed winding, and means for producing relatively well defined magnetic poles, said primary member including means for producing main and quadrature components of flux acting upon said secondary member, means for producing a second component of quadrature flux and means for selectively varying the intensity of said second component of flux.

6. In an alternating current motor having relatively rotatable primary and secondary members, the primary member having a main winding and a plurality of sets of auxiliary flux shading windings, said secondary member including means for producing an induction motor torque and means for producing a sub-synchronous locking torque, said induction motor torque having such a value that the motor speed is normally proportional to the number of magnetic poles on the primary member, and means for opencircuiting one of said sets of auxiliary windings to decrease the motor speed to the sub-synchronous locking speed.

7. In an alternating current motor, a stator provided with inwardly projecting split poles, main energizing windings surrounding only a1- temate poles, permanently short-circuited auxiliary flux shading coils surrounding a portion of each of said last mentioned poles and selectively short-circuitable auxiliary flux shading coils surrounding a portion of each of the remaining poles and a rotor carrying thereon a squirrel cage winding giving a salient pole effect.

8. An alternating-current motor comprising a single-phase shaded-pole stator provided with a given number of salient magnetic pole pieces; and 20 an induction motor secondary rotor provided with a greater number of magnetic pole pieces, the motor as thus constituted having an induction motor torque corresponding to the number of stator pole pieces and a synchronous motor torque 25 corresponding to the number of rotor pole pieces, and means for changing the value of the induction motor torque at a desired speed when the motor is in operation to change from induction motor to synchronous motor operation. JULIAN H. STARK. 

